TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– Thursday marks one week since a winter storm rolled through the Wabash Valley, leaving plenty of snowfall and subzero temperatures for Hoosiers around the state. On Wednesday, state police provided the updated crash numbers from last weekend.
Sgt. Matt Ames with Indiana State Police said in the Putnamville District, there were 11 property-damage crashes and three crashes involving injuries.
“Overall in the Putnamville District, things went really well for us,” he said. “[The state’s department of transportation] did a really good job of getting the interstate cleared off and keeping it cleared off the entire time as the snow went rolling through.”
Around the state, there were 153 crashes involving property damage, and 28 injuries. There were also 83 slide offs caused by the slick roadways.
Ames said, in the Putnamville district, they did respond to 81 calls to assist motorists. He said the biggest reason was semi trucks that had mechanical issues due to the temperatures.
“A lot of our service calls were to assist motorists, and that was due to the extreme cold, we had a lot of semi tractor-trailers where there fuel was gelling up on them, or they were having brake issues and their brake lines were freezing up on them,” he said.
He offered reminders to make sure your vehicle is prepared to travel in tough conditions.
“The most important thing is making sure you’re vehicle is prepared overall,” he said. “We will continue to reiterate that, make sure you have good tires, make sure your battery is good, and when you know a snowstorm is getting ready to come in, make sure you start with a full tank of gas, so that way if you do have to get out or you get stranded somewhere, you’re not concerned about running out of fuel the entire time.”
Extra patrols will continue through New Year’s.
